Iarussi, Massimo | TiL Forum

Studio Massimo Iarussi, Founder & Lighting Designer

Iarussi, Massimo | TiL Forum

Studio Massimo Iarussi, Founder & Lighting Designer

Biography

Massimo Iarussi, architect, specializes in lighting design since 1984. In his work he tries to combine creativity with technology and manual skills. Florence, the city where he lives and works, influenced his career: His greatest area of specialization and the most prestigious projects are in the field of museum lighting and historical and artistic buildings, both indoors and outdoors. Among the most significant achievements, we can mention the project for the lighting of the “New Uffizi” in Florence, the lighting of Michelangelo’s David and the Accademia Gallery, in Florence, and intervention on the Last Supper in S. Maria delle Grazie, in Milan. Mr. Iarussi is darc awards architectural winner for the best interior lighting scheme for the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence.

Exhibiting with LED Lighting – Museo dell’Opera del Duomo in Florence

The “Opera del Duomo” Museum of Florence, in the heart of Florence, hosts the world’s greatest collection of sculptures of Florentine Middle Ages and Renaissance. It recently reopened after a huge expansion project that doubled its dimensions. The new museum path is made of a succession of plot twists, of which the light is the natural complement.

The Hall of the Paradise, which has been achieved within the large volume of an old adjoining theatre, absorbed by the expansion project, is the centrepiece of the exhibition: it houses the full-size model of the Cathedral’s ancient facade, dismantled in 1587, where sculptures have been located in the position where they were conceived for. The exhibition evokes the outdoor environment of the Piazza in front of the Cathedral. To emphasise that suggestion, lighting makes use of the huge quantity of daylight coming from the skylights: the visitor finds inside a lighting condition similar to that of the outside. The diffuse light is combined with accent light: the first evokes the light of the sky vault, while the second gives more relief to the sculptures, simulating the direct light of the sun. Lighting fixtures are easily accessible from the under roof for aiming and maintenance.

All over the museum the light is used to keep the visitor attention, introducing variations to the exhibition. For example, a dramatic light with strong contrasts emphasises the sunken face and the muscles of the astonishing Donatello’s Magdalene, while to illuminate the Michelangelo’s Pietà, there is once again a combination between diffuse and concentrate light, quite gentle this time: the different height of the room is exploited to simulate a “divine light”, coming from above.